Sookie

Target Acquired

Chapter 29

I couldn't breathe. It was all I could do to keep from letting everything I felt for him bring me to my knees. The image was only a day ago but he didn't look hurt. His steps are that of an Apex predator in his element. He moves with grace tinged with the arrogance I know he has in spades. My eyes drink him in and all too soon, he disappeared but not completely.

I was able to follow him because of all the cameras in the airport. I am depraved; I'm worse than a groupie and more dangerous to him than any stalker. I was his enemy but, God help me, I loved him so fucking much. The mere sight of seeing him walk with his normal prowess and arrogance lifts a weight that has slowly been crushing me to death since my memories returned.

Eric sat at the corner of a bar with his eyes on the tarmac. I wished I could see his face but I couldn't. It didn't matter after being starved for just a glimpse, seeing his back was more than enough. I got exactly two hours and twenty three minutes of watching him until his flight was called. He wasn't hard up for time, nor did he have to worry about the sun. He had arrived at the airport ten minutes after sunset.

It wasn't even yet midnight, so unless he was leaving the country he would be fine. He was traveling smart, avoiding Anubis, the preferred vampire airline. I would have given almost anything to know what he was thinking and feeling. I wanted to fix everything for him but his major problems had begun and ended with me. I sighed.

"Fin," I called. "Priority sheriff has been located; upload known data on current location."

He didn't need to confirm my command. I was looking at everything I would ever need to know about O'Hare Airport in Chicago. I already knew the date of his flight and I knew where it was headed, Jackson Mississippi. I tapped into the cameras there but he never entered Jackson Evers International Airport. My guess was that he took flight soon as the doors opened and the passengers only recalled a gust of wind as he departed.

I slumped back into my seat. He could be anywhere. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that he had been up to something but, whatever it was, I was just seeing the tail end. Logic would dictate that his showing up on the map now was meant to deflect his true intentions. Whatever he had done, it had been far away from here.

I felt the brush of consciousness at my skull and I knew who was calling me. Had it been anyone else I might have ignored it but I would never ignore Nim. In the family he used my ability to push and receive thoughts the most. His mental signature was the most familiar but I could count on both hands how many times I'd heard his voice.

"Shy-shy," he called.

"Hey Nim, wats up?" I greeted.

Zee and I were closest, not only in age but in personality, but Nim was my favorite big brother. In my defense Zee shouldn't count as an older anything to me.

"Come see me," He said. Curious as to what he wanted and eager to get away from my own thoughts I went right away.

Nim's room was simple. It was a suite as large as mine but in the east wing of the house. There was barely anything in it, just a mattress, a desk and chair. If not for the nicely painted walls it would look like a cell. It offended my father so much that in the near two decades that he'd owned this home; he had set foot in this room once.

"Father has found the fairy that cursed you," He spoke mentally.

I saw the file on the desk and sat down to flip through it. It held a map with a little red circle. There were also photographs. The first was of a dark haired beauty whose name was Claudine. There was no last name but there were aliases a mile long. Her skin was pale as milk and almost translucent. She was gorgeous and stood at least six feet tall. Her dark green almond-shaped eyes were framed by long dark hair and her legs seemed to go on for days. In a word, she was breathtaking. The bitch, as if I needed more reason to hate her.

Behind her picture was that of my mother's family. I supposed they were my family by proxy but they were still foreign. There was a mother, a father and two children. I recognized Adele Stackhouse as the mother. I assumed the little girl was my mother but she wasn't. I read the back and sure enough the little girl was names Linda.

So my mother must have married the man in the picture. Adele had spoken of her but I hadn't cared to listen. I didn't know which one of them had been unfaithful to their husbands with a fairy. If it was Adele, then I got the fairy lineage from my father, if it was my mother then the fairy in the picture could confirm it.

A mother was something I didn't know I was missing until I was five. Genie had been pushing for me to go to school for years and he had finally succeeded. My first day at school was something I would never forget. It was a culture shock.

Until then, my playmates were a middle-aged neurologist, ancient vampires, or servants. The life I had was normal because I didn't have anything else to compare it to and it confused me emotionally. Biologically someone must have given birth to me so something must have happened to her. I had asked my father why I didn't have a mother that very night.

"You have her picture?" he had asked, carrying me to my room.

I did but that was all I had. It sat in a diamond-encrusted frame in my bedroom of the Verdi-Mogul house. I had five pairs of the same shoes and outfits for every house I used. That had been the only thing that wasn't replicated thorough out. Knowing my father, it was hard to say why. If I had to guess, I would say that he didn't want to call attention to the photo. It was there for me to take with me, inquire about, or ignore. I had ignored it.

"Did you get a divorce because of an affair?" I'd wondered.

It might have been with a whore or a mistress or both. I hadn't been sure. My abilities had always exceeded my comprehension by leaps and bounds. All I knew was that was a common reason for an absentee parent, at least that was what I had gathered from the children at school.

"No," and then he told me the truth as he thought I was able to understand at the time. "She worked for me. I did not know her well. She died. I took you home with me."

I smiled and kissed his nose. "I'm glad you did."

He smiled at me. "Me too."

Looking back, not just as an adult but as someone that was raised under him, I knew he had been careful with what he had told me. My father was manipulative. There was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. In his defense, he didn't lie to us. What we didn't ask about was our own problem. When I was sixteen, I asked Sai the same question. He had given me the full version.

"We bought her from Saul," My brother had told me.

If my father bought my mother from Saul then it meant she had been a whore, a willing and expensive one, but a whore all the same. My upbringing hadn't allowed me to look down at the trade or judge anyone whose motives I could justify.

"She was religious," My big brother continued. "Christian, I think." He had to stop and think about it as he wrapped my hands for our combat training session. "Yes. I think so. She went to church except on this Sunday death was there with her. She refused the advances of a man who then followed her home. He raped and strangled her."

I couldn't remember her face. I had been sad that someone had hurt the mother of a small child as she was on her way home from church no less. The fact that the child had been me hadn't made it any sadder. The fact that this woman had labored to bring me into this world hadn't made the pain any sharper. It didn't then and didn't now. No, now I was furious.

My mother had been in my father's employ at least a year before I was born, longer if one counted her refining time with Saul. Claudine or any of the other faeries would have had more than enough time to stake their claim on me. It was left to reason that they found a motive to interfere and I was going to make them regret it.

I took the photo of Claudine and the map that no doubt had her location. "You have been bested by her previously." He wasn't trying to insult or demean. He thought he was stating a fact but he wasn't. He was wrong and so was my father. "Father has already assigned big brother the task of hunting her."

I left the file intact and left the room. My feet were pulling me back toward the lab but a different kind of obsession allowed me to fight it. I showered, ate, and forced myself to sleep. I needed to talk my dad and I couldn't do it looking bedraggled and fatigued. Late in the afternoon, I went to see my father. He was in his man room and not his day chamber. I entered it after bypassing the passcode of his door.

"Why did I not get the information on the faery?" I asked.

"Why does that trouble you?" He didn't stir from his sprawled sleep position but he was looking at me. I knew that he had done this on purpose; he wanted to test where my head was.

"Why should it not?" I countered. "I am a Princess by blood. No one." That last word is a growl that resounds so deeply in me that my gums tingle. "No one, should take by force that which I do not freely give."

He smiled at me and it was nothing warm. It made the scowl on my face appear benign. "Go with your brother and remind that vermin of your truth."

I nodded my head and turned to the door before he called me, "Mija."

I turned to face him. It was then that I realized that since coming here no one had called me by the name my mother had given me at birth. I was a Princess to Fin. To my father I was his baby in a variety of languages. Mainly I was addressed by the variations of the nickname my eldest brother had given me.

"Do not be late for your party," He told me.

I smiled and nodded, "Wouldn't dream of it."

Not only had my father given me permission to go, he gave me the lead. It meant that I called the shots and Sai had to follow. It took his normally cranky mood and soured it further. I was too intent on what was to come to even enjoy pissing him off. It was just one more thing to add for hating this Claudine bitch.

Sai and I left while the sun was still up, and we didn't have far to travel. During the two-hour drive my mind went to the one place my body never could, back to Eric. Sai shifting the car into park without warning scared the hell out of me. It also brought me back to task. We were where we needed to be. The house didn't look remarkable. It was just a ranch style house far off the highway. It was in the middle ground where Nevada, Arizona, and Los Angeles blurred into a thin line. It was the perfect place to hide from territorial creatures.

Already I could hear the minds. Of all the things to be doing they were having a pool party. I couldn't read them but I knew they were there. They wouldn't know I was there until I wanted to make my presence known. I didn't want to kill anyone. It wasn't a moral issue. It was a strategic angle.

"Give me a thirty second head start," I told my brother.

He nodded. Before I exited I knocked against his mind to make sure we were linked.

He answered, "Your left hand is shit."

His presence in my mind sounded impatient and harassed. It was so eerie how people's mental voice matched their physical. I licked the index finger of my left hand and stuck it in his ear. I was out of the car before his hand slapped the side of my now vacant seat.

"Says the slowest vampire ever," I chortled, walking away.

I reached the door of the ranch style home and the vibrations coming from it was almost visible. The thing about supernatural creatures was that you couldn't indefinitely account for their abilities. Either it could zap me into forgetting where I was or it could kill me. There were a few other scenarios but binding spells were meant to keep people away, not kill them. It wasn't that they respected human life more than vampires but they had a harder time of cleaning up. It forced them to kill less.

I glided along as if I belonged while I searched for Claudine. Faeries were like catnip to vampires. It was another reason why they avoided us. I was too human to have that effect on my family. I'd never come across faeries before to know how they would affect me. It made me thirsty. Their collective flavor was smooth like warm chocolate and caramel.

I ignored it and continued to scan the crowd. I saw her except there was two of her. No, it wasn't an illusion. She was a twin. The differences were slight but I noted them. Claudine's smile was awe-inspiring. Too bad I was going to wipe it off her face. I walked right up to her and sat across from her and the twin.

The twin kept talking animatedly and I don't think she even noticed me. Claudine did and she looked worried. It told me she was smart. She should be very worried.

"Claudette," She said. "Go find your brother."

Claudette slowly rose to her feet.

"Sit," I ordered.

My voice was calm and laced with authority. I nodded my head in a very politely. I was raised to believe that there was no excuse for poor manners. Be that as it may, I was lurking on the fringes of her mind ready to flood it with more pain than she had ever known.

"Please sit down."

There was a moment of hesitation but finally she complied. All the while my eyes never left Claudine.

"You took my memories, my abilities, and my mind, everything that made me who I am," I began. "I want to know why."

"I gave you a chance," She said. By the sound of her voice you would think I was the guilty one.

I raised my brow but, other than that, I kept my anger contained. "A chance at what?" I asked calmly.

"Life," She said.

Enraged was what I felt. From where I was standing, she had ruined my life. I had been a blank slate and thrust into a State that wasn't stable. I hadn't known my own father. I had done things that could have hurt him. I had worked against him. Worst of all I had fallen in love. The love for that man haunted me still. Nope, I don't care what she thought she had been doing. She had fucked me, royally.

I don't think she knew how fast I could move. Maybe she didn't think I would attack her but her eyes were wide with shock right before I butted my head into her pretty face. Simultaneously, I stabbed her sister through the hand. Her scream was piercing as the iron blade ran through tendon and bone leaving her nailed to the table.

I felt hands on me but I seeped into their minds bringing them more pain than they had ever known. I rolled over the table and landed on Claudine's back. There was shouting, the popping noise of fairies fleeing, and chairs falling. It wasn't a result of me ruffling and temporarily unhinging the minds of the fairies around me. That was my big brother. He was too old to be completely rendered useless by the scent of Fae but it didn't keep them from outright panic. He looked like the big bad wolf ripping down brick houses.

"The scary thing?" I hissed. "He's the one of us who isn't pissed off." I buried my knee deeper into her back.

"The truth! Why did you curse me?"

Her only response was a scream that was equal parts rage and pain. There was nothing she could do but watch the carnage. Some got away unscathed but others weren't as fortunate. Sai's fangs ferociously ripped into the neck of one Fae after another. He didn't gorge himself. He didn't give into thirst or instinct. He had more control than that. He got a mouthful and moved on the other threat.

"You realize that the longer he goes at it, the more likely he is to kill someone," I advised.

She let out a strangled cry.

"Make him stop!" She begged. "Please!"

"No. Tell me what I need to know."

"Your mother," She gasped. "Entered a bargain with my uncle in exchange for making her irresistible she would give him a child. She reneged and buried herself deeper under the dead. He could not touch her…"

Even though she answered a question I had, I dug my knee deeper into her back. "Why should I believe you?!"

"It is the truth," She sobbed. "By the time he found her, she was dead and you were so deep under their thrall. It wasn't until you returned to the home of your mother's ancestors could he act. It is all I know. I was supposed to give you a chance at a new life, a different life. Make him stop! I have told you everything!"

"No, you haven't."

"I told you all I can!"

Now that I believed, but it still wasn't going to be enough. "Pity," I drawled, sounding bored. "Sai, kill that one."

Sai and I had been mentally linked since I got out of the car. He knew that if I was speaking out loud then I meant the opposite of what I said. The faery he had in his arms was female and she was young and weak. Faeries valued females. I knew it wouldn't take Claudine long to break.

"I can give you something of much greater value," The faery under me shouted. "It will grant any wish you desire."

I pretended to think about it all the while Sai drank. "Give it," I said but I didn't call Sai off.

"Around my neck."

Seeing that faeries couldn't tell direct lies I was inclined to believe her. Sure enough there was a chain around her neck. The pendant was a pebbled sized stone. It gave off a pulse as if alive when I held it in my hands. It was magical alright.

"I wish I could say you didn't deserve this," I hissed. "But that would be a lie."

I used the hold I had on her and tossed her up to my brother. He caught her midair before she could regain enough balance to disappear. He sank his fangs in her neck and when two faeries came to her aid, I fought them. I could just enter their minds and stop them but I wanted a bloody, bare knuckled fight. They weren't up to it. I had them both broken before I got any relief.

"Sai," I called. "Let's go."

He still hand his fangs in the neck of Claudine. She wasn't struggling. It would do no good but she had her eyes on me. The expression I saw there was hard to decipher. I didn't try. I knocked against my brothers' mind. He was out to lunch, literally. It left me able to enter without causing him pain.

"Let's go."

It took effort but he tossed her away from him. She landed in heap on the ground, barely conscious.

"If you ever come near me or my family again, I will find you. When I do, I will feed you lemons before he cleaves the skin off you with a dull iron blade."

No one had died but the message had been delivered all the same; 'Don't fuck with us' I turned my back to the carnage my brother and I had left behind with the weight of her eyes on me.